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Holy Water Seized by Airport Security

by Catherine Bodry on

Even holy water must be in a 3-ounce container sealed in a 1-quart plastic bag. Catholic pilgrims on the recently inaugurated Mistral Air found this rule out the hard way, when vials of holy water collected at Lourdes were taken by airport security. The company’s president admitted that international regulations have to be respected.

However, unlike other airlines we’ve written about recently, Mistral Air took care of their passengers. The airline left small Madonna-shaped bottles full of holy water on every seat for when the 145 pilgrims came back on board.

Read the full article here.

Budget Travel’s 10 Best Undiscovered Locations

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s that time of year again when Budget Travel reveals its Best Places You’ve never Heard Of.

Every year the editors of this fine magazine interview 10 travelers and ask them to “reveal the places they’ve recently discovered.” The underlying theme here is that these are very cool places which most people have never heard of before, but may some day become popular tourist destinations when word gets out.

True to form, nine of the 10 suggestions this year are places … I’ve never heard of! The lone exception is the city of Wroclaw, a rather nondescript Polish town I visited 12 years ago and found exceedingly boring. Things, however, have apparently changed — at least according to traveler Walter Lowry, who touts the city as having the “prettiest plaza in Poland and perhaps in all of central Europe.” He also applauds Wroclaw for its fine shopping.

As for the other nine cities, here they are. Click, discover, and enjoy!

• Castelmezzano, Italy
• Caraiva, Brazil
• Baranja Region, Croatia
• Estacada, United States
• Yirgalem, Ethiopia
• Puerto Angel, Mexico
• Jura Region, France
• Jomsom, Nepal
• Sangkhla Buri, Thailand

Gadling’s own Leif Pettersen is traveling through another not-so-well-known location: Ia??i, Romania.

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GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of August 26

by Justin Glow on

August is over. The weather has cooled off a bit, everyone’s favorite season is near, and Gadling has another new writer on board. What could be better? Today kicked off a brand new series on Gadling called My Bloody Romania. Lonely Planet author Leif Pettersen (he penned LP’s Romania and Moldova guidebook) will be guiding us through Romania and rapping about “post-EU changes, food, drink, hitchhiking, and why you should never take directions from drunk dudes” — if he ever makes it out of JFK, that is. Let’s hope so.

Here are some no-particular-order Gadling highlights from this past week:

  • Neil went back to Alaska and hired a float plane to do some fishing. If this is something you’d be into as well, check out his how-to guide. He’s also got a great looking photo gallery to boot.
  • Our man in Japan, Matthew Firestone, explores the country’s “culture of cute” in this two part series.
  • Even though it’s been 14 years since Czechoslovakia broke up, Iva still gets the occasional person who forgets this when asking where she’s from. “Please, let the nonexistent country die a velvet death.”
  • Brook Silva-Braga’s month-long trip through northern Europe came to a close this week. “No one uses watches now and my cellphone doesn’t work in Europe so when the sun woke me in Iceland it might have been noon. But when I scrambled out of my tent and checked the clock at reception it was half past three in the morning.”
  • Brett asks, “who have you run into on your travels?” and our readers respond. My favorite? Nick says, “I sat next to the rapper, DMX, on a flight back from Paris. Let me tell you – that was more fun than the trip itself.”

Blogger Leif “Wrong Way” Pettersen

by Leif Pettersen on

Introducing the newest member to the Gadling team, Leif Pettersen…

Where was your photo taken – Crossing a dodgy cable, wood plank bridge that had been reinforced with metal sheeting, two hours walk outside the “village” of Bario, deep in the mountain highlands of Malaysian Borneo

Where do you live now – Earth, but once in a while I have to suck it up and go to Heathrow

Scariest airline flown – Northwest: I have an innate fear of weasels and hunchbacks, so…

Favorite city/country/place – New Zealand: If only they had an ozone layer, it would be heaven on Earth.

Most remote corner of the globe visited – Inle Lake, Myanmar (Burma)

Favorite guidebook series – Lonely Planet, and not because I get a discount…

Person you’d most like to interview for Gadling? Natalie Portman

First culture shock experience – Retuning to Minneapolis after my first summer in Romania. I almost came unwound when I went to a bar and there were TVs hanging in front of the urinals, showing commercials one inch from my face. The urinals, man! I’ve never been so close to a seizure in my life.

Favorite travel book – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. That book aroused the latent, “slightly caustic”, consummate, adjective-loving, gonzo travel writer in me.

Languages spoken – Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Bad English

What Makes a Good Travel Guide?

by Brett Atkinson on

On October 4 the excellent British travel magazine Wanderlust will announce the winner of their annual guide awards. Named after the late Paul Morrison, one of the founders of Wanderlust, the awards recognise excellence in travel guiding. Bill Bryson and Michael Palin will select the winner from a short list of six tour guides that work in countries as diverse as Mongolia, Egypt and Romania.

In your opinion what are the qualities a great guide must possess?

In my recent trip to Oman, the wonderful Hilal came close to perfection with a winning combination of humour, energy and a profound love of his country. His skill at juggling an MP3 player and a cellphone while threading a 4WD through the maze of Omani dunes was also pretty impressive.